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06

JUNE 2013

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CHELSEA ARINE M MAGAZINES

T H E W O R L D’ S M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A T S

CHELSEA ARINE M MAGAZINES

300 TH ISSUE ˜ SPECIAL SOUVENIR EDITION

300 HALL OF FAME

BEST BOATS IN THE WORLD

Griff Rhys Jones sinks at Goolwa

CLASSIC BOA T SURVEY

EXTRA PAGES

ROUND BRITAIN CHALLENGE

RADICAL RACING BOAT

Old Gaffers get going Fabulous Fixitor

THE APPRENTICE

Building a Shannon

The complete sailing set

300 T H

U IS S E

IS THIS THE FINEST BOAT OF ALL TIME? It’s a slightly bizarre question but after much deliberation and quite a bit of arguing, the decision was only going to go one way…

STORY DAN HOUSTON

GILES MARTIN-RAGET PREVIOUS PAGE: TIM WRIGHT.

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

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e’re sat around a table after lunch, small black coffee to hand, and the idea comes to mind that for our 300th issue we should feature the ultimate classic boat. And of course the idea is a bit mad – ah, I admit it was mine; how can you take one boat, one design, from out of the pantheon of so much beauty and floating grace and say she’s the best?

To those who love working boats it will be different to those whose predilection is for a small steamboat...

But while this issue celebrates the diversity of classic boats of all sizes and provenance we are going to say that for us, at this point in time, the 1909 Fife design Tuiga – well she’s got to be the all-time classic. The 15-M gaff cutter exudes a grace under sail that can take your breath away and her lines in harbour perform some kind of massage to the eyes; her lofty rig is all about the transference of power into speed; her deck furniture and

KATHY MANSFIELD

TUIGA

BEKEN OF COWES

the simplicity of fittings there – no winches – speak of the seamanship of a bygone era. In fact it’s the very simplicity of her look that draws you in. It seems to have a narrative quality as you stare and begin to work out how it would be to sail such a boat.

Of course many boats have these attributes; an Essex Smack will create similar feelings. But Tuiga is here not just for her superlative looks. She was one of the first boats to be restored to sail at a time when plastic yachting had all but taken over. She has stood, both sailing and in-harbour, as a bastion of living history that says it doesn’t all have to be of the modern age; she helped to create the breadth of the classic boating movement. There was a kind of collective gasp that went around the world when she came out of the yard at Fairlie Restorations on the Hamble in 1993. How could so much beauty be resurrected? She was perfect, she was strong and to prove it she soon had Eric Tabarly, scion of both the old and new worlds of sailing, attentively holding her tiller in

places like Cannes and Monaco, racing her like a thoroughbred till metaphorically the veins were standing out… on pretty much everyone involved.

GRACING THE NIOULARGUE I was a reader then and I kept that June ’93 issue, number 60 – it’s on the desk now 20 years later. She appeared in magazines from Yokohama to the Costa Brava, proclaiming to a wider audience of would-be aesthetes that something was afoot at places like those races around the Nioulargue Buoy of St Tropez. And of course soon photos of her were zinging brightly through the soft optic cables of the newly established internet and it all became a bit more democratic.

It’s also that very accessibility that brings Tuiga to the fore. After all she is one of four 15-Metres, along with The Lady Anne, Hispania and Mariska. Tuiga was restored by the visionary classic car and yacht enthusiast Albert Obrist. She was the first boat to be restored by the

Above: Tuiga’s been around since 1909 but was laid up in a derelict state before Fairlie Restorations worked on her.

Far left: Tabarly on the helm

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

9

TUIGA

LEFT AND RIGHT: FRANCO PACE

Left: the Monagasques celebrated Tuiga’s centenary with a stamp. Below: master cabin

TUIGA LOA

76ft (23.1m) 92ft LOS LWL

49ft (14.9m) BEAM

13ft 6in (4.1m) DRAUGHT

9ft 5in (2.9m) DISPLACEMENT

38 tons

SAIL AREA

4,380sqft (407m2) 10

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

newly-founded Fairlie Restorations – but Obrist passed her to the Yacht Club de Monaco after two years and since 1995 she has been sailed by club members. This means that technically there has been easier access to her than other boats of her like and it’s hard to think of any boat which has been run like that and has had so much impact over such a long period. But of course we’ll run your letters – we welcome them!

Tuiga celebrated her centenary in 2009 with celebrations and felicitations, which included some paintings by Jack Vettriano and a lavish square book

by Drs Daniel Charles, Wm Collier, John Leather (posthumously), and Ian Nicolson. In it Albert Obrist relates how he appreciates craftsmanship: “I still don’t know anything about sailing, but what I like is the beauty of an object,” says the Swiss bottle cap billionaire who sold his collection of 65 restored Ferraris to Bernie Ecclestone in the late 1990s.

Obrist had already restored Altair, the Wm Fife schooner credited as starting the classic yachting renaissance in the late 1980s, when he came across Tuiga, then advertised in Yachting World for a ‘quick’ sale, in Cyprus in 1989. By then she had a bermudan rig with a furling headsail; she had belonged to a Greek couple whose planned circumnavigation had stalled. The boat was tired. She already had a very long history, including time being owned by the yacht fittings designer JS Highfield in the 1920s, renamed as Dorina. Highfield used her to perfect his famous lever, for setting running

Above: Tuiga’s spartan saloon.

Far left: her lines and lofty sail plan

backstays correctly, equipping just one side to compare its advantages on the older block-and-tackle system.

William Collier recalls meeting Albert Obrist after he had bought Tuiga. “He wanted me to meet Duncan Walker (now heading the newly founded Fairlie Restorations) but at that stage he was stormbound on the Portuguese coast!”

EXTREME CUTTER Tuiga was rebuilt at the newly-founded Fairlie Restorations by craftsmen from the Southampton Yacht Services team which had restored Altair.

She is a “desperately important” boat according to Collier, who now runs GL Watson in Liverpool. “Albert Obrist thought she was the only 15 left in existence but we knew about Hispania and The Lady Anne – so that started the dream, which recently came true of reestablishing the 15-Metre class (CB283). For years she was the only big cutter around apart from Moonbeam III. “And she’s an extreme cutter. We had to learn to sail her without winches [it takes the whole crew – often 16 people – to hoist her 2,066sqft (192m²) 397lb (180kg) mainsail] and people were astonished when they saw that; it really did have a huge impact. Then I think Eric Tabarly said she was his favourite boat and it went on.

“Another important aspect of Tuiga’s restoration is that she is semi-composite and no-one was proposing restoring boats like that back then. She has a steel frame for every two out of American red elm. People thought

we were mad, and suggested laminating in wooden frames but Obrist was a purist and so she had all new steel frames. And 20 years on she’s proved that it could be done and it was worth doing,” Collier adds.

Tuiga was the star of the 1993 Nioulargue race where she slid past the fine-lined Moonbeam III. And later with the YCM she has taken her message of classic purism further afield. “She’s been a wonderful ambassador for us,” says Bernard d’Alessandri, YCM’s manager, who often helms Tuiga in races. “She combines a conservative image with something more dynamic and sporting which makes her a good choice for the club. And she’s not as expensive as a modern boat to run. We don’t change the sails every year, as with a modern boat – she doesn’t need new experimental keels… For maintenance she comes out of the water for a month every spring. And then we sail her every week from the end of April until after the St Tropez regatta in October.

“She has a permanent paid captain (Nicolas Rouit) and is sailed by members of the club who can commit some time, but she’s a dayboat for us – we don’t use her offshore or for cruising. But we can take her anywhere; four years ago she went to Rouen and Cowes; last year we shipped her out to Antigua Classics, just for the week of racing and then back, and of course we took her to Cowes for the America’s Cup Jubilee in 2001. That was one of my favourite experiences with her. To be among so many (208) fine classic boats was an incredible thing.”

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11

TUIGA

NIGEL PERT

JAMES ROBINSON-TAYLOR

YCM

“It’s the most vital ingredient and it makes her look organic”

Above top: ready for restoration.

Above: bronze medallion on the end of her boom.

Above right: in harbour Tuiga’s an ambassador for the YCM

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THE SHEER, SHEER BEAUTY Unfortunately Tuiga is not going to the Clyde for the fourth quinquennial Fife Regatta this June. But organiser Alastair Houston, marine artist, and very likely a distant relation, has known her since her relaunch: “I think she has the most beautiful sheerline of any boat afloat,” he says, adding: “White Heather II had that same look which is a sheerline with just that right amount of curve.

Most Fife boats have it and it’s what makes them so special but Tuiga’s is just a little more accentuated.

Also it’s allowed to hit you because she has just a toerail, there’s no bulwark in place to detract from the line of the deck meeting the hull planks. It’s the most vital ingredient and it makes her look almost organic. It’s what makes people stop and stare.

“They don’t know why the boat is having that effect, but I do and it’s all because of the perfect clean sheerline – that carries everything. And then you have the details, like the beautifully proportioned deckhouses on top of that and it creates the effect.”

Being lucky enough to helm The Lady Anne at one of the Fife Regattas I think the memory will go with me into my box. The boat felt alive with energy, her deck seemed to carry a small hum, as though some fabulous propulsive machinery were at work down below, and she surged forward to any increase in wind pressure. One could sense the water sluicing past the rudder, deep below in the darkness of the Clyde and how a nuance of touch would send her head easily up to, or off, the wind.

And Tuiga, from what people say, feels the same. For Bernard d’Alessandri the fact that she can now race with other 15-Ms has made a huge difference: “It’s like match racing and we don’t know who will be the winner because tactics are so important now,” he says. “For me racing the four 15s together at the Monaco Classics in 2011 was just an incredible situation. It was the first time anyone had seen anything like that in more than 100 years.

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

With the relaunching of Hispania in 2010 and Mariska earlier there were four to race at Monaco Classics in 2011. For while The Lady Anne was restored in 1998/9 she was quickly banned from racing (in the Med) because she had carbon fibre laminated inside her hollow wooden mast (CB170).

The Lady Anne’s carbon was blamed for giving her too much power, evidenced by how she sailed away from Tuiga in some races and she had to cut her rig down and reduce somewhat before she was allowed back into the fold, 10 years after cruising in the wilderness or racing at the Fife Regattas in 2003 and 2008. Most experts agree that of the three 15s Mariska is the least original: “She’s re-engineered into a Third Rule shape to be three tons lighter,” dismisses Duncan Walker. The Lady Anne is very original in terms of her lines but she is basically an all new boat; Hispania had a new hull but her interior is probably the most original. And Tuiga is probably somewhere in between with some of her original interior but the layout being modified in her restoration.

Issue 60 describes Tuiga’s restoration and history from when she was built in six months by Fife’s Fairlie yard, number 569, for the Duque de Medinaceli of Santander to race against the King of Spain’s Hispania, and we’ll put some scans of that on our website for interest.

One aspect of the 15-Ms that seems to gain everyone’s respect is how few crew – typically eight – crewed the yachts in their heyday. Even today with upwards of 16 experienced hands on deck, things can get pretty hairy once the wind is up. Dr Patrice Clerc makes this point in the book, citing how a gybe with Eric Tabarly at the helm led to the mainsheet trimmer crewman, none other than Prince Albert, Monaco’s monarch, losing the skin off his palms as the mainsheet broke free and tore out off his hands while sailing at the Cannes Film Festival. “Tuiga is a wild bronco who can’t be fooled,” he quips. Yes and she’s fabulous, utterly fabulous.

Overseas news

TIM WRIGHT

ANTIGUA

High winds cause damage during racing It was one of the windier Antigua Classics this year. On 20 April, 25-30 knots of wind (more when katabatic gusts came down the island’s steep hills) hit a number of boats hard, most seriously the 1930 Mylne cutter The Blue Peter, which we have been following recently as she crossed the Atlantic from her usual home in the

South of France, victualled with help from our gear master Guy Venables.

The Blue Peter lost her mast after a chainplate reportedly pulled out of her deck. Elsewhere during that windy day, damage included a broken topmast, two broken mizzens and sails blown to shreds. Thankfully there were no injuries reported.

Above: Sumurun was the overall winner at the recent Antigua Classic

The Fife ketch Sumurun, herself no stranger to regatta mishap after her collision with Amorita in 2007, emerged as the biggest winner at this year’s event, with best overall The end 12 hellish days corrected time bringing a of slew of a sextant silverware – not tofollowing mention a new course theBob Southern Panerai watch foracross owner TobinOcean and Captain Armin Fischer.

C/O MOY/IYRS

ttttttttttt

NEWPORT, RI, USA

Graduation and Launch Day at the world-famous International Yacht Restoration School (or just ‘IYRS’) is always a big occasion, with a fleet of student-restored Beetle Cats and other craft slipping into the water. But this year, the event on 1 June will welcome the associated Museum of Yachting (MoY) to the campus. From this date the museum (library pictured above), previously based there and at an out-of-town campus called Fort Adams State Park, will call the IYRS its sole and permanent home – more specifically the IYRS/MoY Library of 4,000 maritime titles, including CB of course. To celebrate, the MoY is staging an exhibition of Newport coastal and yachting images from the 19th century to the present day.

OMAN

New Tall Ship in build for Navy

C/O DYKSTRA NAVAL ARCHITECTS

Major move for MoY

Work has started on a new Tall Ship for the Royal Navy of Oman. The 282ft (86m) ship is the third from the Dutch firm Dykstra Naval Architects, who also designed the Stad Amsterdam and Cisne Branco, both now familiar sights on the Tall Ships circuit. The new ship has a similar, traditional appearance to those other two, although she is 26ft 3in (8m) longer in length. The build, in steel, has started at Damen Shipyards and she will be delivered to her new owners next summer.

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

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300 T H

GRIFF IN GOOLWA

ISSUE

SURVIVAL INSTINCT

Griff Rhys Jones was this year’s guest of honour at the South Australian Wooden Boat Festival. Sounds simple, but first he had to get there on board a paddle steamer. Here he recalls the extraordinary journey PHOTOGRAPHS JO RHYS-JONES

S

teve was direct: “You had better know this, Griff. We’ve won this thing twice in a row.”

He gripped me by the shoulder with a meaty paw. “How handy are you exactly?”

There is a moment when bravado slides like custard off the plate. “Exactly?” I paused.

This was that moment. “Not at all.” I replied. “No, but you can handle a screwdriver and nails and that?”

Not for the first time on my visit to Goolwa, South Australia, I found that television seemed to have exaggerated my maritime accomplishments. “No.” “No?” “No, I am afraid I’m not really capable at all.”

I gulped. “If you want to win the Rough and Ready Build a Boat in Two Hours Using Nothing But Some Cable Ties and Sikaflex, I would recommend that you phone around your mates.”

Steve’s bulk was a shadow against the overly bright Australian night starscape, but I sensed he was absorbing the information steadily, as only big men can.

“Ha, ha, ha! Very funny. But we have to win this, you and me.” He clapped me on the back. “And we will.”

He led me away, legs quivering, to discuss tactics with Dave, on his motorboat moored further up the wharf.

It was the night before the grand South Australian Wooden Boat Festival. I was there as honoured guest.

Three Men in a Boat the television series (not the better book of the same name) features me, Dara O Briain and the tireless Rory McGrath. The last two know nothing about boats. They hold warps like expired invertebrates.

They stand idly by during imminent collisions. You know the type. As a result, even I come across as an authority. It’s an illusion of the plasma age.

But it got me to Goolwa. Goolwa is aboriginal for elbow. Or maybe bend. Or perhaps wind. I heard several versions during my stay; though not from aboriginals.

But Goolwa is not in Adelaide. This is an important consideration. “Have you seen our county town?” I was asked, at the pre-launch cocktail party. And to be honest, though I had flown in there, and though I had been

efficiently shaken down for dodgy fruit or processed foodstuffs, I had seen nothing of the town. It was dark and humid, a few buildings flitted by and Adelaide was left way behind as we sped on the road to Goolwa.

I hadn’t read the instructions. It’s a flaw. Middle-aged men (and I am teetering on the far edge of that one) like to work our toys straight out of the box. And it was the same with this festival. I had assumed that Goolwa was a suburb of Adelaide. I had assumed that they wanted me to wave a ceremonial boathook by a couple of palm trees on the Adelaide beach.

I had also assumed there was probably not much more to South Australia than Adelaide anyway. Yes, I am lucky to be alive to write this account, but then I never voiced that thought. Adelaide is the big, noisy city. “You don’t want that, Griff.” Goolwa is, according to several of its forcefully opinionated citizens, the toppermost place in the whole of Australia. “You want this, Griff.” They may be right.

It is way across the Fleurieu Peninsula (named to remind the English that the French did a little bit of exploring around the southern coast of Australia too). Set amongst yellow hills and shaded trees, it is small, but it is exquisite and it is a boating paradise.

I woke in a cottage in the heritage area of a small river port at the mouth of the Murray River. And I woke early. The first birds began whistling like steam pistons outside my window at 4am. These were magpies. When the galahs joined in, I got up and went for a run. I was in a green, tidy, watery place. Here was the settled collection of decent houses – architect-designed curvilinear abodes taking over from the tin-roofed bungalows. There was a great expanse of calm water, with the odd small marina, and a fetching green tin shed called the Armfield Slipway, and all around me these pale grey cockatoos, flashing their pink tummies were croaking and whistling and flapping. Ahh. The Murray River is a natural phenomenon but a modest one. It happens to be more than 3,750 miles (6,035km) long all in (with the Darling too), putting it

“It is small, but it is exquisite and it is a boating paradise”

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CAption se hse hserh werag ae gaw4t awe gawt sdfaersh xcvbsdfb dfg zdvzsd g

Griff travelled to the festival in true style on board the imperious three-storey paddle steamer Marion – one of our top 300 classics

GRIFF IN GOOLWA

Above, clockwise from top left: wide open expanses of the Murray River; the Lower Murray River pennant; Marion at her mooring; the festival attracts boats of all shapes and sizes

up there to rival the Nile and the Amazon and the Mississippi, but it reaches the Southern Ocean in a series of heroic, shallow 50-mile-wide puddles and one gigantic sand dune. They built a port in 1853 but, after 12 shipwrecks in as many years, they decided that they had better build another one, in a more sheltered spot, further up the coast. That was Victor Harbour. They linked it by railway, and all the river traffic carrying Australia’s cotton and wool from way up-country disembarked at Goolwa, to make a final, short land crossing for getting back to Blighty and other markets.

But the railway doomed the river; all gone now, as has so much river traffic all over the world. Here though, enthusiasts have kept the place open, restored the steam train and provided something for the visitor to see. Every two years they gather all the wooden craft on the lower Murray River in Goolwa and run up the Lower Murray River pennant – a beguiling mix of blue stripes, white stars and navy jack – and that’s the basis for the festival.

I got to know this old man river quite well during my journey. We drove up to Mannum and boarded a paddle steamer for a three-day journey between the levees, chugging past parakeets and galloping cows. Marion had been built to carry wool, with a shallow-steel hull, side paddles and a teetering cake of a superstructure, which had been amended over the intervening years to carry passengers. You can go on her yourself if you get down that way. There are well-appointed hutches masquerading as cabins. Marion had lain in the dry dock as a museum exhibit, once her working life had ended, and then the locals decided they had to get her back on the river. It meant a ground-up restoration, once they got

her off the ground that is. Some of them were with us now as volunteer crew.

We waltzed out into the muddy river, turned in a graceful arc and powered off in a haze of wood smoke.

Despite her tall stacks she kept a comforting bonfirenight smell hanging about the passenger decks throughout the entire journey: past low, willow-clad banks, past the occasional settlement high on the cliffs to avoid the flood waters, and past dozens of raft-like floating houseboats moored up against landing points.

Marion’s engine is a monstrous beast, sitting low on the hull but exposed to the air and flanked by the wheels, enclosed in separate bulkheads. She gobbles up wood at the rate of half a ton an hour. Heavy stuff too. “Have you got asbestos hands,” asks the engineer. “Er… no.” “Then you’ll need gloves.” The latch is tiny: the round door swings open and inside is the inferno of light and flame, which flickers and dances about like a captured spirit. The logs are plain enough in serried rows. That’s the trick: to lay them squarely one above the other in a stack of chips, so I naturally lob in mine, over-excitedly and inexpertly, so it sits across, instead of on, the pile, and I have to reach for the poking stick and poke it into place. It sits placidly alongside the others, not crunching up and banking down like coals, but seemingly indifferent and holding its shape, while this will-o’-the-wisp blast of flame cavorts around the boiler interior. And of course it’s so bright you can see every rivet and bump, the whole cavernous interior glowing with light. Though why I imagined it would be dark in there, God alone knows.

The towns are quiet. Murray Bridge was little more than that – a long iron bridge and a few shops and a

“She gobbles up wood at the rate of half a ton an hour”

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

massive new shopping centre, but mostly a bridge.

Further up the river, we made the mistake in Wellington of asking for the high street. “Well, there’s a service station just up the road that way,” replied the startled woman in the café.

When we returned to our boat we had been joined by other paddle steamers, smaller ones, rounder ones, more like shallow plates with stern paddles. Amphibious, a new build with a fine dining room and sweet stainedglass-windowed accommodation, had been keeping station all the way. Early on our final morning, as we chugged off to cross Lake Alexandrina, we were a flotilla of paddle-powered magnificence.

So now we were signed on as volunteer crew for insurance purposes, standing by to man the bilge pumps if the teetering construct should start to ship water, but the skipper had timed his passage well. The fearful lake was a millpond. “People exaggerate,” the engineer told me as another ton or so of Australian gum tree came off the log piles and into the boiler. “In the old days these ships would simply moor up by the bank and cut their own fuel. But the council owns her now so we never lack the stuff.” The town council of Mannum has to chop down overhanging branches and clear garden waste for its citizens and now it is all recycled and sent down to the wharf to fuel their floating pride and joy.

We were joined for the final push by Oscar W, another large passenger paddler, and the pride of Goolwa itself. She was similarly hungry for timber. Part of the deal that got Marion to the festival at all, was that she would be provided with 12 tons of the wood to get her back. I feared for some of the other vessels. Luckily, Goolwa has avenues to clear as well.

As we navigated the shallow creeks round the back of Hindmarsh Island, we were now in the lower reaches of

Clockwise from above: PS Oscar W navigates her way down the Murray River; fuelling Marion’s massive wood-fired boiler; Amphibious shows off her glorious wooden decks

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GRIFF IN GOOLWA

the Murray. We were now six paddle steamers: Marion, James Maiden, William Randall (modern and built by a carpentry teacher), Flender Himnel (after the name on the gearbox), Oscar W (1908 and river workhorse) and the Kilawarra (aboriginal for black swan). Each blew very impressive steam whistles. If we’d tooted in sequence we might even have been able to formulate a tune, but otherwise this was magnificence. And I observed that the rest of the festival had now pretty well assembled in our absence, as Marion cautiously sat waiting and calculating her approach to the shallow waters by the dock.

In one way we were fortunate there was any water at all. Three years ago the drought got so severe that the lake and the creeks receded. Australia is a federation so there is surprising rivalry amongst the states, nowhere more so in river management, apparently: “What falls in Queensland stays in Queensland,” the locals cried, 2,000 miles (3,200km) upriver. The levels of extraction, always high, had effectively drained the flow, especially to grow rice apparently. Nothing reached Goolwa in South Australia. It all went over to the cotton and into the cows in another state altogether, and Canberra was powerless to intervene.

The dock where dozens of wooden cruisers were now mooring up had been but dry sand. With the return of water the festival organisers had restored the entire place. Two hundred wooden vessels had been summoned to display their brightwork; and this in a climate where varnish gives up after a couple of months’ feeble protest.

I hurried down to perform my official duties. A thunderous roar from rattling cups of macchiato in the harbourside café indicated that a wooden planing powerboat, driven by some sort of truck engine and built in the late Sixties to break speed records, was charging up and down the harbour. I never saw the thing. But I heard it.

I talked about my boats in the theatre. I bought raffle tickets for a wooden dinghy built at the Armfield Slipway and then gave them away. (I once won a pig at a Suffolk fête, by bowling recklessly. It was a Wicker Man moment and best not repeated.) I admired the model

launches made with real silver dorades and planked decks. And then I entered the boatbuilding competition.

We had a transom. We even had a bulkhead. I did my bit with the drill. I clamped cable ties around our length of ply. We manufactured paddles and a sturdy mast. I even fashioned a lug rig. All this, and I slipped in an interview with Adelaide local radio. It seemed a sturdy enough vessel to me.

We launched her off the beach the following day and strictly adhered to the rules, unlike some of our fellow contestants. There was supposed to be a sailing leg, so I persuaded Steve to sail out. With Steve in control we caught a wind. I thought we were going slowly and then I discovered that we were towing the Goolwa firemen. But when my sail filled we bounded away, though not in the direction that we should have been bounding. She was not an easy boat to steer or put about. And then she sank.

There is a moment in every sailor’s life when he has to recognise that the vessel he is in is more water than vessel. It is particularly disconcerting to be paddling a totally submerged plywood barque in the very water in which you are sitting. Steve was undoubtedly right. Had we paddled out and sailed back we might have been in better control of our fate. But I had probably made too many holes and tied too many cable ties for that to happen.

We stepped ashore to warm congratulations and cold beer. Luckily another Brit won (Alec Jordan, there to sell Iain Oughtred boat kits). And there’s always next year.

Well, not exactly. The South Australian Wooden Boat Festival is a biennial event. They’re hoping to get Rory McGrath over for the next one. God help them.

“We were a flotilla of paddle-powered magnificence”

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

Above: the South Australian Wooden Boat Festival at Goolwa always draws a sizeable and appreciative crowd. Below: Griff and Steve’s self-made boat breaks up, bringing their efforts to an unfortunate end

ORIGINAL THINKING From racing schooners to cool cutter yachts, the market for replicas is on the up. Here, we look at the key players and the naval architects best placed to create the classic of your dreams

REPLICAS SUE

300 T H

IS

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t is inevitable that anyone with an interest in classic yachts will eventually contemplate replicas. It’s clearly not for everyone, but even if the idea holds no appeal to you personally, there are quite a few already in existence, and rumours abound of new ones in build.

Joshua Slocum’s Spray may be the yacht that has been recreated most often and with the greatest variations in authenticity. The fact that Slocum only took her because she was all he could afford, and not because of any intrinsic fitness for the journey, doesn’t seem to deter generation after generation charmed by his laconic style and courageous spirit. That he and Spray were eventually lost at sea doesn’t seem to get mentioned much, either. Fortunately, there are numerous examples of yachts that are better fit for purpose and perhaps more worthy of replicating to sail again.

Britannia, a replica of the 1893 GL Watson racing cutter, is now in Cowes since her extraordinary creation

by Sigurd Coates in Archangel, Russia. Coates employed an Oslo-based yacht designer to do some preliminary drawings, who appears to have redrawn the lines plan published by Uffa Fox, and the shipyard did the rest.

Numerous Britannia replicas have been mooted over the years, but so far this is the only hull actually constructed.

Coates doggedly pursued his dream for years; now sold to American owners it remains to be seen if his creation will ever sail, but it will be spectacular if she does.

Main image: Peter Wood’s majestic gaff schooner Sunshine, faithfully recreated from a 1901 design

by William Fife III

BEKEN OF COWES

PEOPLE WITH PASSION Peter Wood was another man with a dream; but he executed it rather differently. His passion was for Sunshine, a 1901 design by William Fife III (left). He did the necessary research and went out to Burma where he and his team faithfully recreated the graceful gaff schooner. Launched in 2004, he sailed her back from the Far East to the Mediterranean without incident, and such was his approach to authenticity that she is now accepted at the most prestigious classic regattas.

Another man with dreams is Ed Kastelein, who is in a league of his own when it comes to building replicas.

After building his homage to Errol Flynn’s Zaca, he took on a replica of Westward, the great Herreshoff schooner.

He called his version Eleonora and she has been a prominent feature of the classic-yacht scene under her current owner, Zbynek Zak. Having sold Eleonora, Ed then built a highly authentic replica of the 1903 three-masted Gardner schooner Atlantic, a truly iconic yacht for many; he’s also finding time to have the hull of another Herreshoff schooner, Ingomar, built in Holland (see Yard News on page 100).

Eleonora must also have been a factor in the decision to build a replica of her near-sistership Elena, which was launched in northern Spain in 2009 and is now kindling CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

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LEFT: TIM WRIGHT; RIGHT AND TOP RIGHT: C/0 BRITANNIA

REPLICAS

a new rivalry between the two Herreshoff masterpieces.

Germania Nova, a replica of the 1908 Max Oertz schooner Germania, was also completed in the same yard for a German owner, although she has been coy about joining any racing to date.

So a few passionate people, with means to follow their dreams, have allowed the rest of us to appreciate these large and beautiful yachts beyond the sepia images of Beken and Rosenfeld. With less emphasis on authenticity, over the past few years there has also been a slew of replica and recreated J-Class yachts. Having long since abandoned the original Universal Rule, the modern versions are arguably more Kardashian than Hepburn, but they obviously appeal to some of the mega-wealthy and provide the rest of us with some spectacular racing. Hanuman, based on Endeavour II, joins the three ‘survivors’ (Endeavour, Velsheda and Shamrock V, all heavily restored), modern replicas of Ranger and Rainbow, and Lionheart, a new boat based on one of the models developed for Ranger; and there are three others rumoured to be in the pipeline.

Five of the class met recently in what was heralded as an historic meeting. Modern Js typically have bigger rigs, 64

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more displacement, and are longer and more powerful than the original yachts. It hardly matters to the megamillionaires and their professional crews playing in the St Barths Bucket Regatta, but to many the relegation of the authentic in the quest for performance is a sadness, which risks making a mockery of the notion that there is really anything historic about it.

With the large gaff-rigged replicas though, the approach is quite different because the emphasis is on the aesthetic – not performance per se. Most of this group of yachts were recreated with reasonable attention to authenticity. Some changes are inevitable when trying to integrate modern systems and accommodate guests and crew, but the overall impression is usually pretty good.

CIM, the committee that wrote the rule controlling much of the classic racing in the Mediterranean, has played an important part in determining what constitutes an acceptable replica. The English version of the rule is perplexing in places, but the rule regarding replicas requires “the hull must respect the lines (including waterlines), type of construction and structure of the original project”, and that the whole yacht conforms closely to the original plans, which must be available.

Above left: J-Class boats in action at St Barths in April.

Clockwise from above: Britannia, viewed stern to bow; plans for the luxurious interior; the original racing cutter at sea

BEKEN OF COWES

The resulting “authenticity coefficient” can match that of a vintage or classic yacht, which has been heavily but sympathetically restored; which is also ironic, given that many of the yachts heralded as authentic restorations appear practically speaking to be replicas.

So there are several yachts on the circuit that are complete rebuilds with new materials; it was only the presence of the original yacht at the outset of the project that made it a ‘restoration’ rather than a replication. A restoration is superior to a replica in these terms because a restored boat is still eligible for an age allowance under the CIM rule, regardless of the proportion of original material in her hull; whereas a replica takes the year of launch (regardless of the design year). The age parameter is a powerful factor in the rule: the coefficient varies from -0.175 (1880) to +0.045 (1975), with corrections for older or younger boats if needed. So, for example, if someone decided they wanted to build a replica of the 19-Metre Norada or Octavia to race against Mariquita under CIM rules, their replica would carry an immediate penalty, despite the fact that Mariquita’s hull, keel, deck and rig were all renewed in 2004. Mariquita’s age parameter is -0.128 (launched 1911) giving her an

Left: sail plan of GL Watson’s famous Vril.

She would be an obvious design to recreate

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ONBOARD

Lazarette Compiled by Guy Venables

Galley gear What better place to test these products than at sea, with The Blue Peter in last year’s Panerai Transat Classique? Full results below

1 MR D’S 4.5L COOKING POT

1

This is a fuel-saving vacuum cooker with an internal pot that, once brought to the boil, is put in the locking outer vacuum pot and has no more need for power or gas for the next eight hours, and yet it still keeps cooking. This enabled us to make pot-based meals we’ve normally only dreamed of without using up all our gas. It also acts as a normal vacuum flask and kept ice for three days. We also had a Mr D’s bread tin (sold separately for just £5) and being able to make fresh bread at sea after only 10 minutes on the hob was a new pleasure. Our pot had a padded jacket with a handle, which was used for hanging it up whilst it was cooking away in rough seas and for passing ice from one boat to another. Inexpensive too.

Kits start from £69.95

3 STACKING GLASSES These came in too late for the BP run but while some will only drink from a glass at sea we do like the idea of something that won’t break when dropped. These polycarbonate glasses, which are claimed as ‘virtually unbreakable’ are certainly very strong, withstanding flying out of an unclipped cupboard after a sharp tack.

Dishwasher safe, microwave proof and fairly wallet friendly. £15.95 for a set of six

www.mrdscookware.com, Tel: +44 (0)23 8084 7834 www.virtually-glass.com, Tel: +44 (0)1252 616161

2 COLLAPSIBLE POT Although The Blue Peter is a fairly large boat, freeing up the space normally taken up by a 3.5-litre cooking pot allowed for noticeably more cupboard space. It has a stainless steel bottom and lid (or optional glass lid) and the floppy bit is made from tasteless food-grade silicone and squashes down to just 2in (55mm). This means it doesn’t take up unnecessary space in the washing up if there’s no time to get chores done, and it’s also less likely to damage anything else when it flies out of a cupboard. £39.99 www.wackypracticals.com, Tel: +44 (0)800 599 9458

4 GAS RING If it had worked it would have revolutionised the way we use gas hobs and would be fitted as standard to every single one of them. Sadly it doesn’t. The claim made by the manufacturers is that the special catalytic alloy disc fits neatly over your hob, heats to more than 1000°C, and burns the unburnt gas that escapes from your ring. Unfortunately, what actually happens is that it acts as a diffuser, making the heat less than without it. In short, it’s useless and some users on the internet have also reported that it set off their carbon monoxide alarms! One to be avoided. £14 www.vistore.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)191 209 4161

2

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4

VISIT Sailing Equipm classicbo ent a

ONBOARD

t.c

o.uk For many m o r e product r eviews

Musto drysuit One-piece surface immersion suits like this are often seen as superfluously extreme by many yacht sailors, although their value to dinghy sailors has always been known. This one, the breathable Dinghy Drysuit from Musto, has been around in one guise or another since 2001 – and the one we tested was the latest design from the 2013 spring/summer collection.

They have come on quite a bit in recent years, in terms of comfort and weight, and this one feels very light to wear. It’s not the top-spec £600 MPX suit, but has certain advantages over it, not least in the 2mm neoprene ‘glideskin’ cuffs and neck, infinitely more comfortable than the latex cuffs of the MPX and other suits.

The look, all black with a chunky zip, is a cross between diver and government assassin. It is fairly easy to don and remove singlehanded, and the internal braces (as well as that light weight) mean that it does not sag down while wearing.

I tested it out with a full immersion on the Upper Thames on a chilly day this April, floating for about five minutes in water of 2°C. There was no cold-water shock and I was completely dry and warm!

Many people have told me that a drysuit changed their life. Now I know what they are talking about. Getting back to the car park or changing room and not needing to tease off cold clothes, is a novel feeling. I will be using the suit in July when sailing from Land’s End to the Scilly Isles and will report back then.

SHMH. £370 plus p&p www.musto.com, Tel: +44 (0)1268 495 824

Collapsible hose

Hoses, although handy to have on board, are heavy and take up a lot of room, so we hope there’s one that reaches our mooring on the quayside rather than always storing one. That’s before we heard about the Xhose.

It’s very light and its length expands by three times when filled with water, so dry storage is not a problem. It doesn’t kink and rolls up into a shoebox.

Sizes of 25, 50, 75 and 100ft are available. From £29.99 for 25ft

SUNDOWNERS WITH GUY VENABLES

Sherry dear!

Booze, like most things nowadays, comes and goes in fads.

Last year it was all about small batch gin. Right now the word on everybody’s lips is sherry. It’s being poured as appetisers in frighteningly expensive restaurants and matched with food in shiny magazines. Sherry used to be considered the drink of choice of the old. My parents have a glass of sherry every day before lunch.

Amontillado for her, Fino for him.

When I join them, I realise just how civilised they are, presumably due to all those years of diligent practise. One of the advantages sherry has over wine, is that you can open it, drink some and close it and it won’t go off.

Perfect for the sporadic drinking one often encounters on a boat when bottles can be put away for as long as a whole winter.

Encouraged by my ‘Spirit Guide’ Andy Redman, I went to my first sherry tasting at the Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana in Sanlúcar de Barrameda near Cadiz. If you ever get a chance to go to a tasting, any tasting, just go. On a solely financial basis you’ll usually end up drinking more than you paid for the ticket (this one was £12) but engrossing yourself in a subject, introduced by someone who knows his beans and sharing the experience with other enthusiasts, is a real pleasure. The offshoot is, when someone starts groaning on about 20-year-old Palo Cortado having a dryness like a newly cut stick, you might feel confident enough to counter his piles of guff with something about bacteria in Palomino grapes. Alternatively, you could go the mischievous way of Kingsley Amis and Stephen Potter by insisting he imparts everything he knows about wine whilst loudly telling everyone in the room to gather round and “learn something from an expert for once”. We tried everything from the rocky-dry Manzanilla la Gitana, through to a rare PX Triana VORS that looked like engine oil but tasted like figs grown in the Garden of Eden.

But I’m getting bogged down in fancy talk. Basically, sherry no longer has a pipe-smoking stigma and seems to be taking its rightful place as a rich and diverse drink of noble heritage, too long wrongly associated with bewildered cat owners and roaring leathery generals.

www.officialxhose.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)800 883 0314 CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

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ONBOARD

!lassnotes 15-Metre

BY VANESSA BIRD

DARING DESIGN The most prolific year for the class proved to be 1909, with six being launched: three on the Clyde, two in Northern Spain and one in France.

Of the two Spanish boats, Hispania, designed by Fife, was built for King Alfonso XIII of Spain, for him to compete in against his friend, the Duke of Medinaceli, who had commissioned Fife to design and build Tuiga (p6) the same year.

Fife’s designs dominated the class until 1912 when the Charles Nicholson-designed Istria was launched. With her long overhangs, and wide beam at the waterline, Istria was described in Yachting Monthly as having “a fine tail and a useful snout… she would not have

VANESSA BIRD

T

hese are exciting times for the 15-Metre class. One of the biggest classes conceived within the International Rule, it’s been over 90 years since these elegant thoroughbreds enjoyed competitive racing within each other’s company, but now the 15-Metres are in the midst of a great revival. Two years ago, in September 2011, four 15-Metres met at the Monaco Classic Week for the first time since the early 1900s, and last year enjoyed a series of events with their own starts.

Although it is not particularly unusual to see a 15-Metre racing at Mediterranean events – Tuiga having been a participant since 1993 – it was a rare sight to have so many racing together. Unlike many classes of their generation, all of the yachts present were original, and three were more than 100 years old.

The first 15-Metre was launched in 1907 following the development of the International Rule by the IYRU. Only 20 were ever built, and of these, eight were designed by William Fife III, four by Alfred Mylne, three by Charles Nicholson and two by Johan Anker. The remaining three were designed by Max Oertz, Joseph Guédon and C Maurice Chevreux.

been a pretty vessel had she not proved clever”. And clever she certainly was. The 14th 15-Metre to be built, she featured a revolutionary Marconi gaff rig – the first yacht ever to do so – which, combined with her hull design, resulted in 72 wins out of 81 starts. She dominated the class until she was broken up in 1924.

Interest in the 15-Metres dwindled in the 1920s, and many were re-rigged as cruisers. Eventually many were lost, but four of the original boats – Mariska, Hispania, Tuiga and The Lady Anne – survived. Of these, Tuiga was the first to be saved, after being discovered in Cyprus by Duncan Walker of Fairlie Restorations in 1989. He sailed her back to Southampton, where in 1990 she was joined by The Lady Anne and, in 1997, by Hispania.

Tuiga was the first to be restored

by Fairlie’s, and was relaunched in 1993, followed by The Lady Anne in 1999. Ten years later, Mariska, built in 1908, was restored by Charpentiers Réunis Méditerranée, and two years later Hispania joined the quartet, her hull having been restored by Fairlie’s, before work was taken over by Astilleros de Mallorca.

With four of the original Fife designs now in commission and the class revived, the question is when will a replica Istria be built? GL Watson & Co has all the archival information, and now all that is needed is an investor. It’s an exciting prospect – watch this space.

Above: The Lady Anne, one of only four 15-Metres now sailing

OLYMPIC CAREER The 15-Metre class was chosen to compete at the 1908 Olympics, but no boats entered and so racing was cancelled. Unlike other Metre classes, such as the 6-Metres, 8-Metres and 12-Metres, which took part in several Olympics, this was the only year in which the 15-Metre yachts were to feature – at least in name only.

IN THE CLASSIFIEDS SPECIFICATIONS (HISPANIA)

LOA

63ft 5in (19.3m) LWL

49ft 2in (14.9m) BEAM

12ft (3.6m) DRAUGHT

8ft 4in (2.5m)

SAIL AREA

4,300sqft (399m2) DESIGNER

William Fife III 1909

Mariska was discovered by William Collier in the classified ad pages of Classic Boat. The 15-Metre was based in Delfzijl in the north-east Netherlands, on the border with Germany, and was the fourth of the original fleet to be discovered.

INNOVATIVE 15-METRE The Nicholson-designed Istria was the most innovative of the 15-Metres. In addition to her Marconi rig, her rowing dinghy was countersunk into the deck to reduce windage. Forming a ‘cockpit’ in the deck, the location of the dinghy initially caused some controversy, but was accepted after officials were convinced that it could be launched within seconds.

Vanessa’s book, Classic Classes, is out now.

For more details, go to www.classicboat.co.uk CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

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!raftsmanship JIMMY FUREY

Leading by example There’s no substitute for experience, especially when it comes to building a Shannon One-Design. Meet the best builder in the business, Jimmy Furey STORY GUY VENABLES PHOTOGRAPHS CATHY MCALEAVEY 96

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Main picture: Cathy’s Shannon One-Design starts to take shape.

Right: Jimmy Furey is a lively character who demanded perfection at every stage

DAN HOUSTON

I

f you get completely lost in Ireland driving down a track through a forest on the Roscommon side of Lough Ree around Mount Plunkett, walk through a field and then jump over a wall with a hedge on it, and you just might find yourself at Jimmy Furey’s house.

It is an area of supreme Irish tranquillity where moss-softened stones protrude out of the ground like knees from a bath. There are few places as gentle on the eye. Jimmy has lived here all his life after inheriting a 40-acre division of an old estate and the house that was built for his grandfather. Jimmy has been a farmer and an eel fisherman, but mostly Jimmy is a boatbuilder.

When we arrived through the hedge to the constant alarm of crows and the wriggling welcome of several Labradors, Jimmy was in the process of steaming some ribs with a peat-fired steamer for a Shannon One-Design (SOD) dinghy with Doughal McMahon and his unlikely new apprentice, former Irish Olympic sailor Cathy McAleavey (read her story on page 78). Much like the master-and-apprentice relationship you see so often in the films, Cathy had only just been let loose with a plane that very week, despite the fact she had been there for two months building her own boat.

In the lean-to where the Shannon One-Design was being made, we busied ourselves with poking around.

On a shelf we were proud to notice a huge pile of Classic Boat magazines going way back to issue number seven from 1988. Whilst the steamer was heating up Jimmy showed us some of his model boats, the quality of which are outstanding and for which he won a Duke of Edinburgh model-makers Gold Award many years ago.

These, he admitted, took three times as long to build as CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2013

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CRAFTSMANSHIP JIMMY FUREY

“Before the ribs can be used they are placed in the lough to take up water, held down by rocks that had been sunk a few days earlier”

building an actual Shannon One-Design. This isn’t surprising as, on close inspection of the miniature SOD, it appeared he’d actually riveted copper wire to emulate the 4,000 rivets in the full-sized boat.

As Shannon One-Designs are so often raced, they are built to very strict design regulations in which the discrepancy of an extra rib, or two inches in length, would cause foul play cries from the Shannon OneDesign Association (SODA) governing body. To counter this some of the measurements are carefully marked out on the roof of the shed above where the boats have always been built, and Jimmy still uses the 11 original ply patterns. This speeds up the process, enabling him (when full time) to build two boats in a winter.

MASTER CRAFTSMAN In 1920, designer Morgan Giles came up with an 18ft (5.5m) dinghy, which was just the right length for the steep waves of the loughs of the Shannon, with a gunter rig. A trial boat was commissioned from boatbuilder Walter Levinge and by 1922 about nine of these craft had been built at a cost of £37 each – four times the average price of a lake boat at the time. Amazingly, some of these boats are still sailing today.

For Jimmy it all started in 1972 when two Englishmen, Pierce and Goodwin, asked him to build them a SOD. Up until then he’d been employed by them to fix and build rowing boats. “I was conceited enough to think that I could do it,” said Jimmy. But with the help of Walter, who also gave him the chainplates, and another SOD master craftsman called Peter Quigley, he built number 107 and he rather liked it so built another, number 108, for himself. His eyesight affected his skill at the tiller but he soon became an expert sheet hand and lacking funds for a manufactured one, he made himself a lifejacket out of inner tubes.

Quite a few things have changed since Jimmy temporarily retired from the boatbuilding business.

Now the timber boards come in metric measurements and his trusty old habit of splitting a 98

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7/8in plank down the middle so that each side has mirrored grain proved to be impossible.

Jimmy and Cathy’s passion, perfectionism and keenness to build the best boat was inspiring, just as much as this odd partnership was touching. This exercise was also about so much more than a dream to build their own boat. This is a thin strand; there are a few others who build SODs (Doughal McMahon is one of them) but the art could easily die out and Cathy is taking important steps to ensure that it doesn’t.

In an old television programme Jimmy said: “The hills are getting that bit bigger, the boats are getting that bit heavier and the fellow with the long gown and the scythe under his arm is catching up.” Although, he said that nearly 20 years ago – he’s 87 years old now – and he doesn’t look like stopping. Indeed, when we saw him striding about his yard it looked like the fellow with the scythe was miles behind having tripped over his long gown in an attempt to keep up.

Jimmy still digs up peat from his own bog to fire the timber steamer and before the ribs can be used they are placed in the lough to take up water, held down by rocks that have been sunk a few days earlier. This time, that job was done by Cathy, who nearly disappeared into the bog whilst Jimmy shouted instructions at her from higher ground. Once out, these ribs display a wonderful peaty umber, caused by the dark tannin in the water.

Cathy sourced the running rig from a Weymouth chandlery whilst over there watching her daughter Annalise sailing in the 2012 Olympics. Cathy’s Shannon One-Design, No 178, was finally launched last summer to compete in the Lough Derg Regatta and the Raid on the Shannon. So has the process put her off another epic project? Not a bit: Cathy’s now planning to build a Water Wag and it doesn’t take a genius to guess who will oversee the build.

Above, left to right: Jimmy and friends hold the ribs while Cathy nails them down; the tubular peat-fired steamer; planing the timbers.

Below: Jimmy with his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award and the prize-winning model